NFL warms to legend of Charles Follis

1st black pro player, Ohio star celebrated in play, TV segment

Jan. 20, 2014

One of the few photos available of Charles Follis, the first black professional football player who was a running back with the Shelby Blues starting in 1902. / Photo courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame

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CentralOhio.com

If You Go

• What: The Black Cyclone; The Charles Follis Story. • Summary: An original play by Jim Stoner recounting the story of the nation’s first black professional football player, from his days at Wooster High School to his pro career with the Shelby Blues at the turn of the 20th century. • Where: Wooster High School Performing Arts Center • When: Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 26 at 2:30 p.m. • Tickets: $8 for adults, $6 for students. Also available at the door. • Phone: 330-345-8760. • Online:www.blackcyclone.org

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For seven decades the exploits of Charles Follis were lost in history.

But over the past few years his story, as the first black professional football player with the Shelby Blues, has generated interest from the Pro Football Hall of Fame to TV to the stage. That’s where Jim Stoner comes into play, literally.

Stoner authored a play that was produced last summer in an outdoor setting at Malabar Farm in Mansfield. That piece, titled The Black Cyclone: The Charles Follis Story will take the stage at the Wooster High School Performing Arts Center Jan. 24 through 26, fittingly where the Follis story really began.

The difference is the cast consists of Wooster High School students and community members.

“It’s time that we really celebrated the why, the backstory,” Stoner said. “The script is the same, and we’ll do it again at Malabar next October.

“The screenplay is in development. We’re meeting with the film commission in Cleveland at the end of the month.”

There was an eight-minute segment on Follis aired on NFL Films Presents last fall. It included footage of the play at Malabar, and interviews with Stoner as well as actor Michael Barbosa, who plays Follis, and Herman Smith, a great nephew of the whirlwind running back.

“I was probably 4 or 5 years old and my parents mentioned to me that you had a great uncle who was an awesome football player,” said Herman Smith, a great nephew of the Black Cyclone. “He was a hero to us, but to the rest of the world he was an unknown.”

That was certainly true for years, 70 of them to be exact.

In the early 1970s authors Milton Roberts and John Seaburn began a quest to find the first black pro football player. They found their man in 1974 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after uncovering a team photo of the 1902 Shelby Blues.

Follis began playing for the Blues in 1902. But written documentation of his status as the first black pro is the contract he signed to play for the Shelby Athletic Club on Sept. 15, 1904. That pact is on display at the HOF in Canton.

In his day, Follis was one of the best all-around athletes in the nation. At 6-foot, 200 pounds, he had prototype size and speed. He played baseball and football at the professional level and excelled at both.

Winning followed him everywhere, too.

In 1899, Wooster High School went 8-0 and outscored foes 122-0 with team captain Follis playing right halfback. In 1902, Shelby claimed the state championship, and in 1903, the team won seven of eight games. The Blues were 26-5-2 while featuring Follis.

On Oct. 17, 1903 against Ohio Wesleyan, coached by former teammate Branch Rickey (who would later sign Jackie Robinson to crack the major leagues color barrier), Follis scorched the collegians with runs of 20, 25, 35, and 70 yards — the last one for a touchdown.

Rickey said, “Follis ... he is a wonder.”

Some have speculated Rickey’s idea to integrate baseball was fostered through his association with Follis.

Charles played football in Shelby until a Thanksgiving Day game in 1906 against the Franklin Athletic Club of Cleveland. An injury that day ended his football days, but not his athletic career.

On May 16, 1906, in an Ohio Trolley League Game, Follis was playing for the Wooster Giants when he faced Herbert “Buttons” Briggs, of arch-rival Elyria. Briggs won 20 games two years earlier with the Chicago Cubs and was hired just to pitch this game.

But Follis hammered him with a 4-for-6 performance, including a tremendous home run on the first pitch Briggs threw him.

Follis played baseball until the day he died.

According to his family, Follis arrived home in Cleveland after a game on April 5, 1910. He took a shower and was sitting on his front porch when he began to suffer convulsions. He lapsed into a coma and died.

Follis had recently recovered from a bout with pneumonia and apparently suffered a relapse. He was only 31 years old.

“It’s very deeply emotional, not only with me being a black man myself, but also having the bloodline of this individual that has been tied over to such an unbelievable feat,” Smith said. It’s amazing, utterly amazing.”